The Grill
by Crystalkei
Summary: Mark, Josh, and Jim scheme to build a grill. They don't need plans, they're just going to wing it.


Maddy opened the front door and immediately recognized that something was amiss. Glancing around the front room, she found nothing out of the ordinary there, but when she poked around the corner towards the sunroom, she found the disturbance. Through the windows she noticed her brother and her boyfriend talking. They never spoke. Perhaps they exchanged snide remarks, or glares, or once in a while they might shrug in vague acceptance of one another, but they didn't talk. And they didn't look like they were plotting, either. Which is exactly what they appeared to be doing. Plotting.

The two stood in front of a wheelbarrow that was overflowing with bricks. Mark was holding a plex and gesturing to the bricks and then back to something on the plex. Josh took a moment to turn and mimed with his hands some kind of…well, she wasn't really sure what he was doing. Stepping outside cautiously, Maddy cleared her throat to get their attention. Mark looked up and smiled and Josh waved.

"What's going on?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Mark's face lit up as he took two steps and stopped right next to her, holding out the plex. Maddy looked down and saw an artists' rendering of a brick oven, then some photographs of metal contraptions but she had no idea what they were.

"We're building a barbeque grill!" he announced like an excited child. Maddy tilted her head in confusion. "It's from this book you gave me. Apparently people used to cook outside for fun, you know, when you could go outside, and they would cook meats and veggies and it was this male bonding thing. Sitting outside, grilling things, drinking beer."

"But we have a perfectly useful stove inside."

"Right," he nodded and pointed back to the plex. "But this is for cooking outside. I was thinking, I've cooked over a fire for survival training and the occasional OTG trip, but this would be a proper place to cook things outside."

"Because food cooked outside tastes better?" Maddy asked skeptically.

"Yes!" Josh interjected. "Yes, food cooked outside tastes better. Plus, there's the beer drinking and the male bonding."

"But you two don't like each other." Maddy looked between the two men. They, in turn took a moment to glance at each other and shrug.

"Well, maybe if I had more interaction with him than walking in on the two of you while he was servicing you, I would like him." Mark swallowed a laugh and Maddy threw her hands over her face in embarrassment.

"Josh!" she screeched. He just stared at her knowingly.

"Anyways," Mark interrupted. "I couldn't really build it at the barracks and so I started this way and I ran into Josh and told him the idea and now we're doing it. Awesome, right?" He was practically jumping up and down. She'd never seen him so giddy.

"Okay," she said slowly. "Do you guys have some plans? Some instructions to work from?"

Once again, Josh and Mark exchanged a glance, but this time it seemed to be a look of exasperation for her interference.

"We got this, Maddy." Mark handed the plex back to Josh. "We've got lots of pictures, I read up on the mechanics of the grill. We're just going to wing it. It can't be that hard."

Maddy narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "One of you is going to get hurt."

Simultaneously the two men sighed frustrated. Josh rolled his eyes and Mark kissed the top of her head in a patronizing fashion. "We'll be fine," he assured her. "You just make sure that there's things for us men to grill."

"It's a good thing my mom will be home soon," she said sharply. "One of you is bound to need medical attention." Mark scoffed. "And you can find your own damn food to grill once you finished your little project," she added before she turned back to the house.

"What's this?" Elisabeth asked when she found her daughter in the sunroom, feet propped up, glass of juice in her hand, and plex on her lap. "You don't usually hang out in here." Maddy nodded towards the backyard in explanation. Elisabeth squinted her eyes to make sure she was seeing properly. "Is that your brother…and Mark? What are they doing?"

"They're building a barbeque grill," Maddy said flatly.

"A what?" The backyard was in a state of disarray. There were bricks spread out, something that looked like mud in a bucket, and two very dirty young men. In one corner of the yard, a collection of bricks was formed in a rectangular enclosure.

"I gave Mark a book." Maddy let out a loud sigh. "And now he's got this absurd idea that he and Josh can build it. It's like a fire pit, but you cook food on it." Her daughter's face was priceless and Elisabeth wished she had a camera to capture it. This must have been the first time Maddy was irritated or confused by something her significant other was attempting. "And you know what he said? He said he didn't need plans. What an idiot." She shook her head and continued to watch the boys work from her chair.

"What's going on out there?" Jim asked joining them.

"Maddy says Mark's gotten a wild hair and he's building a barbeque grill." Elisabeth caught the look on her husbands face and her brows knit together. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"I have this really early memory, my grandfather out by a shiny metal grill, spatula in hand, turning burgers." His eyes were twinkling and Elisabeth couldn't help but smile. Maddy still looked annoyed. "I'm gonna go help them."

"Dad," Maddy tried. "They don't have plans, they're just winging it, someone is going to get hurt!"

"Nah, we don't need plans, Maddy, it's not rocket science," he brushed her off and she glared at him then looked back at Elisabeth.

"They're all crazy, Mom."

"Yes, dear," she agreed. Sitting down next to her daughter. "They are. But I'll pull up a chair and watch with you. Have they hurt themselves yet?"

"Josh dropped a brick on his toe, Mark scrapped his arm and they both bumped foreheads. That part looked pretty painful." Maddy ticked the injuries off on her fingers.

"Your brother does have an exceptionally hard head." Elisabeth watched as Josh and Mark welcomed Jim into their madness. After a few moments of discussion that she couldn't make out, Jim took some bricks and walked over to the half built stacks. "Where did they get the bricks?"

"Apparently Boylan had them at the bar, just lying around," Maddy answered. "Who knows where they got the tools. Probably construction."

"Is Zoe still at the playground?"

"Yeah, I told her to come in when it got dark." Maddy feigned interest in her plex a moment before abandoning it again to look back at the train wreck in front of them. "Do you think they even thought about the grill portion?"

"I don't know, dear." Elisabeth smiled. She wasn't sure what was more entertaining, watching the men make fools of themselves or watching Maddy sulk about it.

"You know, I spent 15 minutes…just 15 minutes. I skimmed the book, I did some searching and calculations and look," she said, offering Elisabeth the plex. "I made a working plan, with measurements, sketches, explicit instructions. They're going to be out there until dark fussing about and if they'd just ask me, I've got it all right here."

"Sometimes they just have to learn for themselves," Elisabeth said putting an arm around Maddy's shoulder.

"They need something for the actual grill portion," Maddy said pulling away from her grasp. "I'll be right back."

"I think that does it!" Mark exclaimed as they placed the final brick. He stood back to examine the pile of brick and mortar. It was sloppy and crooked, but it looked like the picture and even Jim seemed to be impressed. Not that he was looking for Jim's approval. Who was he kidding? Of course, he wanted Jim's approval.

"Where do we cook the food?" Josh asked and Mark deflated a bit.

"Ah, wait…" Mark picked up the plex and started scrolling through all the pictures. Jim and Josh huddled around him to try and figure out what they might have forgotten.

"You'll need something like this," Maddy said from the door. Mark turned to see her holding a plate of grated metal. "Unless of course, I'm not manly enough to assist. If that's the case, I can just take my grill rack back to the bathroom shelf that I cannibalized."

Both Josh and Jim looked to Mark, but didn't take his eyes off Maddy. It was just occurring to him that she'd been sitting in the house pissed off at him for the last two hours. He'd insulted her and somehow, he'd missed that. Whoops.

"That looks like just the thing we need, Maddy," he said with a nervous smile. "You're really the hero of this whole project."

Her eyebrows lifted like she didn't believe one word coming out of his mouth but she handed him the grate. "Do you know where to put it?"

It seemed like a loaded question but he wasn't going to make any jokes standing in between her father and brother. Despite being woefully out of their league with this project, they had been having fun. He bit the inside of his cheek and nodded his head. "Did you want to inspect our work?" he offered.

"Might as well," she said walking towards the grill. She circled it a few times, bending over occasionally to get a closer look at something, Mark wasn't sure what though. "I'm impressed you actually built an acceptable ventilation shaft. I figured that would be the first thing you'd miss in your adventures of 'winging it.'"

"The best part is we can cook you dinner now," Josh cut in.

"If you can actually get it to hold a flame," Maddy replied smartly.

"Aw, sweetie, we can do that," Jim said easily. "Josh, go get some of that eggplant that your sister likes. Reynolds and I are going to get a fire started." Josh trekked back to the house but before he entered Jim added, "Have your mom come out here and see this."

Maddy still looked unimpressed, but she didn't look nearly as livid as she'd looked a few minutes ago so Mark called that progress. She joined her mother close to the door as Jim pulled out a lighter from his pocket. Mark had already placed some wood and tinder in the brick enclosure and now Jim bent down to light it. After a few tries, the wood finally caught and then it happened. Something sparked and a smallish, harmless really, fireball seemed to burst right above the grill. Right about the time Jim was leaning over it.

"Oh goodness," Elisabeth said, though she didn't sound surprised. Jim looked at Mark with a scrunched face.

"Did I just singe my eyebrows?" he asked. Mark didn't want to answer but the laughter from the women behind him gave away the answer. "You've lost my eyebrows for me, thanks a lot, kid." Jim shook his head and glared.

"It's not that bad," Mark lied. "I'm sure no one will notice."

"You think?" Jim asked, believing the fib. Mark nodded enthusiastically. Jim smiled and relaxed. But Maddy and Elisabeth hadn't stopped laughing.

Once the eggplant was cooked, the three men continued to grill anything they could find in the house. By the time Zoe came in for dinner the table was covered in so much food there was hardly room for the plates.

Maddy's mood seemed much improved after the laugh she and her mother had shared and she even let Mark sit next to her and put his hand on her thigh through the meal. After dinner, he and Maddy sat on the bench in the backyard, her head on his shoulder, his arm wrapped around her. She was looking at stars but he was too proud of himself to notice anything but the grill.

"You know, I made that," he said poking her.

"Oh, I know. I watched you make a fool of yourself all afternoon," she answered, her smile taking the sting out of her words. "If you'd just let me help, it would have been much faster. And even. See all the crooked bricks? That would not have happened if I were in charge."

"Maddy, you're a certified genius, you think I can occasionally do something by myself so I can feel _almost _as capable as you?" he asked honestly. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him.

"I don't think I'm smarter than you, you know? I don't. You are an expert in things I've never even thought to study." Now he felt like he was being patronized.

"I just wanted to build the damn thing by myself, and we had fun. I had fun with your brother and your dad and we made a grill."

"That's a first." She smiled and he couldn't help stop himself from kissing her.

"I built a grill," he said smugly as he pulled back from her lips. She shook her head.

"You're ridiculous. I spent just a few minutes and made up plans. They would have made the whole project so much easier."

"Keep the plans," he said before taking her hand and standing up.

"Why? You've built it, I mean, mine would have been better, but yours is sufficient. It's not like we need two," she rambled on as he pulled her to her feet.

"We're going to have to have a grill at our house," he said with a smirk. Maddy looked confused a moment before she caught on. Then she smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Alright, but when that happens, I'm going to help so you don't hurt yourself." She touched the growing knot on his head softly and he tried not to wince.

"It's Josh's fault," he grouched. "I can see why your parents have such a hard time with him."

"Why?"

"He's got bricks where his head should be." Maddy laughed softly before standing on her tiptoes to kiss the lump on forehead.


End file.
